Norwegian printmaker Jan Albert Fürst Kolstad, who uses light and nature to create mood and atmosphere in his art, opens a new season at the Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art Aug. 23-Oct. 13. A free, public opening reception for “Jan Albert Furst Kolstad: Prints” will be held from 4 to 6 p.m. Aug. 30 at the museum on the Westmont College campus, 955 La Paz Road in Montecito.
“His exploration of life’s beginnings and meanings within etching’s depths, textures and happenstances will add much to this community’s understanding of printmaking’s potential for conversation,” said Martha Ensign Johnson, former Westmont instructor of printmaking.
Kolstad studied at the College of Art and Design in Oslo and the California College of Arts and Crafts. In San Francisco, he encountered Asian art, which made an impact on his work.
“(This) was of decisive importance for Kolstad’s further development, and one can hardly imagine his pictorial world without having to refer to this,” wrote Øivind Bjerke, professor of art history at the University of Oslo.
A master printmaker and artist, Kolstad has received numerous grants and shown his works in more than 30 solo exhibitions. A professor at Oslo National Academy of the Arts, he has taught for nearly 25 years at Asker Art School.
“I look at the world through the eyes of a printmaker,” Kolstad said. “In our discipline there are dimensions but no edges, diversity but no limits.”
In conjunction with Kolstad’s exhibition, Los Angeles-based sculptor Brad Howe displays “Kukorica,” a stainless steel and polyurethane form, on the lawn outside the museum.
— Scott Craig is the media relations manager for Westmont College.
